“Dickens’s commercial success allowed him to evolve increasingly complex and formally ambitious fiction” (Introduction to The Artful Dickens by John Mullan).
Charles Dickens is one of the most influential literary figures of all time. He was an internationally bestselling author even while he was alive. He has written fourteen completed novels, a myriad of short stories, and even more newspaper articles. His works, imbued with social commentary, have raised awareness for socioeconomic injustices in Victorian Britain that were exacerbated by the Industrial Revolution. However, Dickens did not start off with the intention to become an author.
Before turning into the literary giant he is now known as, Dickens wanted to be an actor. He changed his mind, nonetheless, since he gained immense popularity very early in his writing career. His debut novel, The Pickwick Papers, which first issued in 1836, was a hit from the get-go. English professor John Mullan notes, “With Pickwick Papers, Dickens more or less invented the novel of monthly parts” (Introduction, The Artful Dickens).
The financial success of his serialized novels is particularly important, because Dickens grew up in a family that was constantly in financial trouble. His father, John Dickens, was sent to debtors’ prison when Charles was just twelve, leading him to work at a blacking factory as a child. This undoubtedly shaped Dickens’ attitude towards financial security. Dickens’ writing career, in turn, is both a result and a reflection of his experiences.
Entrance to the Charles Dickens Museum in London. This used to be Dickens’ home when he was writing his earlier novels, like The Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist.Published between 1833 and 1836, Sketches by Boz was a collection of short stories that Dickens created under the pseudonym “Boz.” Dickens adopted the name from a character called Moses in Oliver Goldsmith’s The Vicar of Wakefield.Dickens’ copy of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. 1834. Professor of English John Mullan writes, “It is telling that, Shakespeare apart, the English literary work to which Dickens refers most often is Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, a novel that, in the mid-nineteenth century, was on the dubious border between literature and popular entertainment” (Introduction, The Artful Dickens).Dickens the Great Magician (c.1880s) by Joseph Clayton Clarke Kyd. Dickens loved being an entertainer, which also translated to an interest in performing magic tricks.Charles Dickens giving a public reading of the chapter from Oliver Twist where Bill murders Nancy. 16 March, 1870. The intersection of literary Dickens and popular entertainer Dickens.Dombey and Son worksheet, recto. From the very first outlines of the plot, we can already see Dickens has a relatively clear idea of where the story might lead him.Untitled frontispiece for Dombey and Son; published along with the last issue on April, 1848.Staplehurst rail crash; 9 June, 1865. Dickens was a passenger on the train along with Ellen Ternan, and in this image he is depicted helping the other injured passengers. Dickens never fully recovered from this accident.Dickens in America. Dickens traveled to North America in 1842, during which time he wrote American Notes for General Circulation. Historian David Olusoga points out, “That Victorian capacity for being passionately committed to anti-slavery as both a moral principle and an article of British national identity while at the same time holding old racial ideas and dabbling in new ones can be seen in the writings of one of the most famous men of the age, Charles Dickens…Dickens’ vivid heartfelt denunciation of American slavery exists on the same pages as his highly derogatory racialized descriptions of the black people he encountered…There is no question that Dickens’ revulsion at slavery was real and that it stayed with him in later life, but so did his dislike of black people and their physical appearance” (Chapter 7, Black and British).
A Cruikshank illustration of the moment Oliver realizes the true ambitions of his young friends. This took place near Clerkenwell Green.
A picture of the dining room of Charles Dickens’ house. In this house, Dickens wrote Oliver Twist and other novels. Today, it is a museum dedicated to Dickens’ life.
Jacob’s Island, where Toby Crackit and other criminals live in order to escape notice by law enforcement. This is also where Bill Sikes flees and dies in the climax of Oliver Twist.
These are the steps on London Bridge where Nancy talks to Mr. Brownlow and Miss Maylie. Today, a plaque is mounted near the steps to pay tribute to Oliver Twist.
These are the gallows in front of the Newgate Prison. Fagin is doomed to hang here at the end of Oliver Twist.
This is a Cruikshank illustration of the moment Oliver meets Fagin and the rest of his gang. Fagin’s headquarters are located near Field Lane.
This is a Cruikshank illustration of the burglary Oliver is forced to play a part in at the Maylie residence in Chertsey.
This is a picture of Warren’s Blacking Factory, or what it may have looked like. Here, Dickens spent three years as a child laborer, fixing labels on pots of blacking for six shillings a week.
Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth on February 7, 1812 to a middle-class family. His father was a clerk in the navy pay office, a job that paid well, but due to John Dickens’ extravagance, became insufficient to support the family. By 1824 Charles’ father was put in debtor’s prison. Charles, who had the fortune of beginning education at 9, was forced to cut it short at age 12 by working at Warren’s blacking factory for 3 years. Charles resumed education after this 3-year retreat, but was soon removed once again to work as a clerk in a solicitor’s office. In 1833, he became a parliamentary journalist for The Morning Chronicle. There, he began writing a series of sketches under the pseudonym “Boz” and published the first installment of The Pickwick Papers in 1836, the same year he married his wife Catherine Hogarth. The Pickwick Papers became incredibly successful, launching his literary career. He went on to publish an autobiography, author many books, edit weekly periodicals, write plays, and lecture against slavery in the United States. In 1865, he was in a train accident from which he never recovered. Five years later he had a stroke, ending his life.
The area around Bridewell brings together people from all walks of life as one might expect from a place with a garden, two prisons, multiple churches, countless wharves, and a royal history. In addition, the small houses cramped together in the spaces left in between the various institutions suggests that the area was probably relatively densely populated. This makes sense as everyone might have a different reason for living there.
“A Whistling Shop. Tom & Jerry visiting Logic ‘on board the Fleet'” from Pierce Egan’s Life in London (1821)
Someone could be in Fleet Prison because they are in debt; another might be working at the prison. The drawing of the inside of a whistling shop from Egan’s Life in London shows the range of people who are living here. Within the same room, there is a man in tattered clothes warming himself by the fire, a woman with children, some card players, and almost everyone is drinking. The clothes of the people—especially the colours and cuts of their clothing, and the types of hats they are wearing—implies that most of these people are not from the same socioeconomic class; however, it is also clear that no one is from the upper-upper class, and there are very few from the lower-upper class, if indeed there are any. How much would things have changed in, say, fifteen years from the time this drawing was made in 1821?
Charles Dickens could help us see that the answer is not that much. In his earliest novel, The Pickwick Papers, Mr. Pickwick ends up in Fleet Prison, and Dickens’s description wouldn’t appear strange to someone familiar with the prison from Horwood’s Plan.
Charlotte Brontë references another prison in this area during a game of charades in Jane Eyre: Bridewell. This prison starts off as a Tudor palace and is later converted into a hospital and prison during the reign of Edward VI. While the purpose of this building has changed over time, the various structures surrounding Bridewell are a reminder of its history through names like King Edward Street, St. Bride’s Church Yard, St. Bride’s Wharf, Crown Court, Tudor Street, Bride Lane, Bride Court…
“Poor Sweep, Blackfriars Bridge” from Mapping Modern London (1804)
Bridewell during the late 18th and early 19th century has significantly changed since its days as a royal palace. The Pass-Room from Ackermann’s Microcosm of London shows a Bridewell where women are sleeping on hay because there are not enough beds. It is probable that some of these women are single mothers since there are children in the middle of the drawing.
In addition to the prisons and people who live in the area because they are in some way connected to the prison system, another demographic to keep in mind is children working to survive. We see Blackfriars Bridge as a spot where crossing sweepers work in Modern London. This suggests there are also middle class people who are coming in and out of this part of the City of London since someone must be paying for this service provided by children. Bridewell and its surroundings is a point of entry into the district, and therefore it makes sense that the place be populous and host people from different socioeconomic backgrounds.
“Poor Sweep, Blackfriars Bridge” from Mapping Modern London (1804)
